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I’m not just frustrated, I’m appalled: all this tie-in merchandise declaws the story of The Hunger Games, in much the same way that the actual affluent Capitol in the books declaws the seriousness of the “real” Hunger Games—a forced gladiatorial battle between teenagers—by staging flashy weeks-long television specials around it in order to distract from the horror of juvenile carnage by making it entertaining.

The movies (gratefully) violently counteract any attempt we might make to see them as fun escapism. To see The Hunger Games is not to be entertained. The films’ greatest redemptive feature is their pervasive sadness, from the faces of every character to the musical score to the bleak sets. Even during the biggest, most lavish celebrations at the Capitol, we know the ones who are enjoying themselves are being played for vapid fools. Everyone with half a brain is miserable and, increasingly, furious.

Over many decades, missionary researchers have developed terms which describe the Gospel need of the various people groups.

We know the ultimate goal is for people to become reproducing disciples of Christ. But in order for that to happen, people need to hear the Gospel to begin with (Romans 10:14). Two terms have been used to measure this: “unreached” and “unevangelized.”

Complementarians are in a major cultural moment. We’ve seen our biblically-driven movement grow and spread all over the world in the last few decades. Tens of thousands of churches have reaped encouragement from CBMW, and have continued to preach the same biblical truth on sexuality and gender that Christians have believed for millennia. Today, we’re seeing challenges to God’s wisdom sprout like weeds all over the culture. Believers need to be equipped to handle these challenges, and to answer questions like these: How can believers respond well to these challenges? How do gender roles relate to the gospel?

There is a popular notion among Evangelicals that I think has become part of our folklore. Indeed, it is the shibboleth (secret pass code) of my fellow Calvinists. When I call this “folklore” I don’t necessarily mean “not true” (as we will see), I simply mean that it is uncritically accepted without much thought. Many would say that God’s sole purpose, intent, and motivation for creating humanity and all of creation was for His own self-glorification. If you were to ask this question to God: “God, why did you create us?” His answer, without hesitation, would be, “Easy, to glorify myself.”